


Pink in the Night

by ungratefulambassador



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Other, Strangers to Lovers, Tropes, and they were ROOMMATES, im giving yall romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 10:23:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18798439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ungratefulambassador/pseuds/ungratefulambassador
Summary: what happened when you woke up in the shop with Asra for the "first" time?





	Pink in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> (ive been listening to nothing but mitski for a month and now all my yearning is going into this story asokfhslfk)
> 
> (also im not done the first chapter yet but... im pumped yall)

            I awoke, shuddering violently despite the relative warmth of – well, wherever I was. The room itself was circular, made entirely of heavy grey stones cobbled together. This alone would have been intimidating, I’m sure, had all that grey not been all but entirely covered in swathes of rich fabrics dyed in riotous colour, with a square stained glass window that looked out onto the street that ran alongside. Coming back to myself I realized that I lay faceup, quite simply, on the floor. A hunched figure sat at a round wooden table situated in the room’s center, long tan fingers scrunched—white knuckled—in a head of unruly curls.

            Who was _that_?

            I felt a rising pressure in my chest and coughed, the force of it rolling me onto my side where I continued to nearly cough up a lung: and then there was a cool hand on my back, another gently pulling my hair from my face to the nape of my neck.

            He opened his mouth and made some sounds - what did they mean? …Was I supposed to know?

            The voice was soft, comforting… somehow, familiar. I turned around to get a better look at its origin, and there he was – the person from the table. He looked to be in his early twenties: thick, tousled white hair; lean, but strength clearly evident in his stance. His dark eyes were heavy-lidded and rimmed with kohl; he seemed exhausted, but when my gaze met his, he managed a tired smile. Was I gawking? Blood rushed to my cheeks. I choked out a few sounds that I hoped sounded apologetic and scrambled to my feet – ugh, head rush – before stumbling out of the round room into another that looked like some kind of cozy specialty shop. Where is the door out of this place? I spotted an iron handle and lunged – but came up short, those too-familiar, too-strange arms wrapped around me.

            He moved his mouth and made some sounds again, his chest rumbling against my back, and then let me go. When I turned back around, I noticed that his brow was furrowed – in confusion?

            Despite having only recently awoken, I felt extremely tired; my eyelids became heavier and heavier and gravity was not on my side. Any misgivings I may have had about this strange place began to melt away: after all, I reasoned, I had already been here for who knew how long and I was in okay shape. What was a few more hours? Just to rest my eyes. I slumped back into the arms of the familiar stranger, who easily bore my weight. The last thing I registered before slipping back into unconsciousness was being lifted gently into his arms and carried upstairs.

…

            _Asra held the girl close to his chest as her eyes drifted closed once more. It pained him to see her so addled and utterly lost, but – it seemed that this was another piece of the price paid for life restored, one that she bore the brunt of, but he was determined to ease her load in any way possible._

_She felt so breakable, so delicate. Had she always been this way? He noted, alarmed, that he could feel the ridges of her ribs through the slip she wore. No matter, he would make sure she ate well come morning._

_He reached the top of the stairs, where the sleeping loft that they had so often shared lay. As of late, of course, it had housed only him – his stomach clenched – but things would go back to normal now._

_Well. Sort of normal. But he would deal with that later. For now, he carefully put her down onto the bed and brushed a few stray hairs out of her face before slipping in beside her and pulling up the covers. Still mindful of how wary she had seemed before, he restrained his urge to wrap himself around her like one of the climbing vines in their garden and reached out his fingers to graze the skin of her shoulder. She was warm, she was here, she was alive. No matter what it had cost, he thought, it had been worth it._


End file.
